Using Hypnotherapy to Heal from Complex Trauma

Traditional talk therapy isn’t the only way to heal from complex trauma. By understanding the different avenues you can take with your healing, it can be easier to recognize which direction is best for you. With this in mind, this blog focuses on helping you take a creative approach to your healing, and for today’s post, we are going to be diving into the potential of hypnotherapy. This blog will also show you how to support yourself through a journey outside of traditional talk therapy.

This week, we got to interview Justine Lette, whose an International Trauma-Informed Educator, Speaker, and Hypnotherapy trainer based in New Zealand. You can learn more about her experience, practice, and qualifications here.

Throughout this blog, we will explore the depths of hypnotherapy and how it can be a powerful tool for those healing from complex trauma while shedding light on its benefits and unique techniques.

Whether you’re curious about hypnotherapy, looking for different ways to heal, or simply interested in expanding your knowledge, this blog aims to provide you with the information you need to empower you with creative and effective strategies to help you throughout your healing process. So, let’s embark on this enlightening journey together, as we uncover the world of hypnotherapy and discover new pathways to help you on your journey of healing from complex trauma.

Every day, we are learning more and more about trauma and how it impacts our minds and body. While traditional approaches like talk therapy can be helpful to someone who has experienced trauma, it often involves relieving painful experiences that are not always best for everyone. Thankfully, talk therapy isn’t the only option to help those heal from therapy. One of the alternatives that someone can look into that offers hope, healing, and transformation without retraumatization is hypnotherapy and hypnosis.

While speaking with Justine, a renowned hypnotherapy trainer, and trauma specialist, we were able to gain insight into her unique perspective and journey into this transformative field. We also got to dive into the core parts of hypnotherapy and hypnosis, and their intense impact on healing complex trauma.

Background and Journey:

Justine’s path to becoming a hypnotherapy trainer and trauma specialist took a different route than most. While many practitioners enter the field through personal experiences, that wasn’t the case for her. She had always had a fascination with natural therapies, however, when Justine learned that someone in her family had experienced severe abuse at a young age and saw how she was treated in the health system through retraumatization by retelling her experiences of the abuse, it ignited her passion for helping others navigate their trauma.

Justine was passionate about finding a method or process that would empower people to move forward from their traumatic experiences without constantly reliving them. Throughout her journey, it led her to learn about trauma-informed hypnosis and hypnotherapy. She focuses her work with her clients on the sensations that are going on in the body, rather than solely relying on talking about and reliving the experiences.

The Core Parts of Hypnotherapy and Hypnosis:

When asked to define hypnotherapy and hypnosis, Justine first wanted to state that hypnotherapy and hypnosis were two separate things. She explained that hypnosis is not a mystical phenomenon, such as the common myth of swinging a watch in front of someone’s face, but rather a natural state that we enter into daily. She mentioned that hypnosis can be seen during a heightened emotional state or when you lose track of time during routine activities. 

When someone taps into this state of hypnosis, that is when hypnotherapy can work to enable clients to access their subconscious mind and shift their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. While speaking with Justine, she emphasized that hypnosis and hypnotherapy are not about controlling or manipulating individuals; instead, it is a process of empowering them to be who they truly want to be by bypassing the limitations that are imposed by their conscious minds.

Healing Complex Trauma:

For individuals who have experienced complex trauma, hypnotherapy brings a unique approach to healing. Justine mentions that most trauma survivors spend their days living in a trance-like state and are hindered by an overactive nervous system which restricts their ability to engage in daily activities. By leveraging and going through hypnotherapy, hypnotherapists can guide clients to explore their bodily sensations, while identifying and addressing the root causes of their trauma.

Justine noted that, while working with survivors of sexual abuse, she has found trauma-informed hypnotherapy to be extremely effective, without the need for extensive storytelling or reliving traumatic events. Instead, the focus is on the present moment and how the client is currently feeling while empowering them to envision a future free from the shackles of their past.

Looking Forward:

Justine’s approach to trauma-informed hypnotherapy is rooted in creating future memories. By guiding clients into an altered state (a state that differs from the normal state of consciousness), she helps them imagine and experience a positive future by allowing their minds to comprehend and understand these imagined experiences as memories.

This process of creating imagined future memories enhances the brain’s capacity to move toward that envisioned future while fostering healing, resilience, and the cultivation of positive emotions. Justine’s work highlights that emotional healing can be achieved without constant retraumatization, and the mind can be rewired to embrace joy, love, and peace.

In a world where trauma casts a dark shadow over many lives, hypnotherapy emerges as a beacon of hope and transformation. Justine Lette’s journey into this field and her dedication to trauma-informed approaches have reshaped the way healing is perceived. In her work, she prioritizes the sensations felt in our bodies and creates future memories to help empower people to reclaim their lives while moving forward with strength and resilience. While looking through the power of the mind and finding the innate potential within us, we can rewrite our stories and embark on the future we always wanted but never knew was possible.

To learn more about Justine’s services and some of the work she has done, visit her website here.